The male protagonist is a student in his first year of high school. He is an avid videographer and constantly out recording on an 8mm handheld camera that he inherited from his late grandfather. Others sometimes refer to him as "The Director". He is seemingly aware of Kanna's feelings for him, nonetheless he develops a genuine love for Ichika. He also has frequent daydreams of conversing with Ichika and talking out loud sometimes during them. When Ichika revealed her true identity to him, it didn't bother him since he had a thought that she might be from outer space. Kaito and Ichika later confessed to each other and began to date. Before Ichika left to go back to her planet, he promised to love her forever. It is shown that before Kaito and his friends graduated from high school, they completed the film, adding a scene that reveals that Ichika was able to return to Earth again.

The female protagonist is an alien whose ship accidentally crash-lands on Earth, thus causing Kaito to sustain fatal injuries. Since her bodily cells consist of the nanomachines the capacity of which is medical treatment, she saves him by transferring her cells to him through kissing and initially remains with him in order to be certain that he is in condition. Being an alien unaccustomed to life on Earth, her actions may seem weird in the eyes of others, but she is quick to correct herself if only to hide the fact that she is an alien. She was aware of Kaito's feelings, but had yet to respond with her own. She is kind, polite, friendly and an odd cook (because of her bizarre, yet still edible food combination choices). Like her best friend, Remon Yamano, she is a third-year student in Kaito's high school. Ichika later revealed herself that she is alien to Kaito and her friends, but it didn't bother them at all, especially Kaito who had a thought she was from outer space. With Kanna's help and influence, she confessed to Kaito and began dating him. Ichika said that she would continue loving Kaito, even after she left. At the end of the series, Ichika is shown in the final scene of the completed film, revealing that she was able to return to Earth again.

An outgoing girl who is quick to speak her mind. She is a close friend of Kaito, whom she has a crush on. Kaito's sister is aware of this and encourages a relationship between the two. Kanna has been friends with Tetsurō since childhood. She loses her usual demeanor when she gets drunk, and it has some hilarious consequences, like, for example, on the group's trip to Okinawa, interrupting Kaito and Ichika when they were about to share a kiss. A running gag on her is that on special occasions she decides to wear cute clothes to impress Kaito (swimsuit, yukata, etc.) only for Ichika to wear the same kind of clothing and look better than her. Kanna helped Ichika to confess her love to Kaito, at the cost of her own feelings. However, she got over it and confessed her love to Kaito despite the knowledge that he loves Ichika and accepted his rejection with a smile.

A close friend of Kaito and Kanna. Although he has feelings for Kanna, he knows of her feelings for Kaito and encourages a relationship between the two. He seems to be an all-around savvy guy with females and is easily able to smooth-talk a female teacher into giving out Ichika's body measurements. He also develops a closer relationship with Mio after knowing of her problems and her own crush on him. He later confessed to Kanna and knew she would reject it; he just wanted to not regret saying it.

A good friend of Kanna. She has feelings for Tetsurō, and sometimes her thoughts seem to innocently go in a sexual direction. Every time she is shown at home she is nude; she also sleeps in the nude (even when sleeping with Kanna) and dislikes wearing underwear. When confronted about this she says that her family are nudists, and that she hides this fact from everyone due to her embarrassment over her family's unusual lifestyle. She is shown to have quite sensitive skin as well, which complicates her other issues. She's for the most part sweet and innocent. She has had very long hair, but after confessing her feelings to Tetsurō, she cut her hair short. Despite being the most gentle and soft spoken of the group, Mio has shown that after her confession to Tetsurō and haircut, she has grown as an individual. She offers words of advice to Tetsurō on how to deal with his feelings for Kanna despite her own feelings towards him. She has shown that, while she may be timid at times, Mio is not only observant and selfless (a trait shared by Kanna and Tetsurō as well), out of her friends she is the most well rounded and has been described as "strong" by Tetsurō himself. After Tetsurō confesses his love for Kanna only to be rejected, Mio comforts and once again, offers kind words to him. While eluding the Federation, Tetsurō asks Mio on a date to the movies.

A third-year high school student with a petite appearance and a distinctive voice. She is generally cold towards people, but befriends Ichika when they first meet. She is good at picking locks and can be quite mischievous, such as when she makes the rest of the group drink an alcoholic drink, then records their drunken reactions. She seems devious, as though everything she does has an ulterior motive. Since she claims to have written a script for Lucas in Hollywood, she ends up being the writer for the group's film. She is hinted to be older than she pretends to be, as Manami, whom she calls "senpai", asks her why she is still in high school. When she and others learned that Ichika was an alien, she wasn't surprised at all. The final episode reveals that she is an agent of the Men in Black.

A companion to Ichika, this alien lifeform is nonhumanoid, stands roughly 12 inches tall, and is the organic computer interface for Ichika's spaceship. It is also able to teleport Ichika, operate support machinery, and aid her in healing Kaito when necessary. After Ichika has been brought back to her home planet, Rinon remains on Earth and stays with Remon at the Men in Black agency. However, when Ichika comes back again, Rinon is seen on her shoulder.

Kaito's big sister. She dotes on Kaito ever since their parents' death and is easily moved to tears. She trusts Ichika to take care of Kaito when she goes on a business trip to Bolivia and leaves the two alone in their house.

Tetsurō's older sister. She is married to Satoshi Ogura, but frequently quarrels with him (usually due to the simplest things) and stays over at Tetsurō's apartment to cool down. Her husband was revealed to be part of the Men in Black agency in the last episode.

The Waiting in the Summeranime TV series directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and produced by J.C.Staff and Genco[2] began airing in Japan on January 10, 2012 on the TV Aichi and KBS television networks.[3] The screenplay was written by Yōsuke Kuroda, who originally conceived the series with original character designer Taraku Uon. Masayoshi Tanaka based the character design used in the anime on Uon's concepts. The music was mainly produced by Maiko Iuchi, with other members of I've Sound, and the sound director is Jin Aketagawa.[2] The opening theme is "Sign" sung by Ray, featuring lyrics written by Kotoko and composed by Shinji Orito of Key. The ending theme is "Vidro Moyō" (ビードロ模様?) sung by Nagi Yanagi, who also wrote the lyrics, and is composed by Tomoyuki Nakazawa of I've Sound. The single for "Sign" was released on February 8, 2012, and the single for "Vidro Moyō" was released on February 29, 2012.[4] Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime for release in North America, and Crunchyroll is streaming the series in North and South America.[5][6]Madman Entertainment licensed the series for release in Australia and New Zealand.[7] The staff of the anime returned to produce an original video animation episode released with the Blu-ray box set on August 29, 2014.[8][9]

While testing his high-speed film video camera, first year high school student Kaito Kirishima sees a bright blue light, then an impact has blown him off of his footing and beyond the railings. He sees a hand grabbing his as he fell, bloodied, only to wake up in his futon the next day. At his school, a transfer student named Ichika Takatsuki comes to a third year class. Somehow the both of them has a familiarity with each other when his classmate Tetsurō approaches her and her classmate Remon Yamano, proposing that she joins a movie project he and Kaito are planning. She accepts it without hesitation, and Remon volunteers to write the script. Kaito's classmates Kanna Tanigawa and Mio Kitahara volunteered later. When Kaito goes to test his camera after class, he finds Ichika fishing in the river. He finds out that she has nowhere to go, so he unwittingly offered her to stay at his house, given that his sister will be away for three months. Back home, as Ichika takes a bath, Kaito felt pain in his neck, then sees a flashback of what happened the evening before. Ichika finds him unconscious, with a sign of increased metabolism on the area where that insect bite was. Ichika then calls for her assistant Rinon to stop it, as she kissed him. Exactly as Kanna and Kaito's sister Nanami arrive.

02

"Together with Senpai...""Senpai to Issho..."(先輩といっしょ…)

January 17, 2012

In this episode Ichika is revealed to be an alien journeying to look for a certain scenery that she has been seeing in her imagination. She crash lands on Earth when her spacecraft hits space debris. Meanwhile, Nanami awakens, saying she has had a dream about Kaito being hugged by a naked girl in a ball of light. Nanami gets to know Ichika, and out of nervousness the latter almost reveals that she is an alien, but manages to convince them that she is a foreign student. Listening to her story, Nanami lets her move in with them, since she will be away for quite some time, and she was looking for someone to take care of Kaito. Kanna was surprised to hear it, even thinking it to be some sort of a wedding arrangement in exasperation. After seeing Nanami off the next day, and right after shopping for clothes for Ichika, Kaito finds Remon, Tetsurō, Mio and Kanna inside the house—to talk about the movie project. After Remon served them some sort of spiked alcoholic drink, which had "bad" effects on Kanna, Kaito again fainted due to the same illness, but Ichika kissed it away.

03

"Senpai Says...""Senpai ga Icchau..."(先輩が言っちゃう…)

January 24, 2012

Kaito seems to be frustrated with his failed attempt to confess to Ichika, so he decides to ditch school, telling her to leave him alone for a while. Worried, Kanna goes to visit him at his house. Her visit turned into a date as the two went to Karuizawa. Ichika sees them from a distance and follows them. Kanna had to leave Kaito when she finds out Remon has been filming their "date." It so happened that Ichika crosses paths with Kaito. Nervous of the prospect that she wants to talk to him, he runs away from her, and a chase ensues. It was all about a misunderstanding—that Kaito wants to know Ichika's secret, while Ichika wants to know who dumped Kaito. When Kaito took some footage of Ichika, it turned out into some sort of an informal confession. Shocked, Kaito stops filming her.

04

"Senpai Was Amazing""Senpai wa Sugokatta."(先輩はすごかった。)

January 31, 2012

Things turn awkward the next day, but they try to put it behind them. More complications arrive when Manami, Tetsurō's married sister, takes Kaito shopping. Ichika sees them, and follows them via teleportation with Rinon's help, even to Manami's apartment. Worried about what will happen next, Ichika enters and tries to take him home, though not without clashing a bit with Manami. Tetsurō arrives and clears things up, telling Ichika that Manami is already married, and she is here because of a petty quarrel with her husband. As an apology, Ichika asked Kaito if she could do anything for him. He asked if she could help him review for the finals, to which she agreed, and helped him study until the final day of exams.

05

"Senpai Is a Heroine""Senpai wa Hiroin."(先輩はヒロイン。)

February 7, 2012

Ichika becomes the heroine of the independent film the gang were planning before summer break. Kaito agrees, while helping Ichika look for that particular place she is looking for. Kanna becomes uneasy when the lines for the film becomes somewhat uncannily realistic, especially in the scenes involving Kaito and Ichika. Even Kaito was surprised by Ichika's questions that evening. As the next day was a rainy one and filming is cancelled, Kanna goes to Kaito's house to bring some nozawana. That evening, Tetsurō, after meeting an uneasy home-bound Kanna, sneaks into Kaito's room. He tells him that she, his childhood friend, is in love with him. Ichika overhears the conversation.

06

"Senpai's Rival""Senpai ni Raibaru."(先輩にライバル。)

February 14, 2012

As Ichika is pondering on what Tetsurō told Kaito that night, thanks to Tetsurō's sister, filming for their movie goes to Okinawa, where Kaito meets a childhood friend, and her companion is attracted to Tetsurō. This puts Kanna and Ichika at an unease, especially when Kaori, the girl, says that Kaito is her fiance. Mio, on the other hand, is uneasy herself when Chiharu, Kaori's companion, sets her sights on Tetsurō.

07

"Senpai's Feelings""Senpai no Kimochi."(先輩の気持ち。)

February 21, 2012

Ichika's worries are banished when she gets to the root of what's going on with Kaori and Kaito; while Mio does her best to protect Tetsurō from a ravenous Chiharu—to a point of revealing a secret. The group wrapped up their filming the next day, as Kaori and Chiharu leaves for the airport right after filming.

08

"Senpai in Trouble""Senpai ga Pinch,"(先輩がPinch,)

February 28, 2012

After Ichika enjoys her first Japanese festival, Remon pops out of nowhere to challenge everyone to a test of courage at a dark shrine. During the test Rinon appears to Ichika, telling that an emergency beacon has been activated. True enough, a Federation lifeboat (a rescue drone) comes to rescue her (it's more of taking her by force), but Ichika refuses, saying she has still a lot to do. Then again, when Kaito hears Ichika scream, he rushed to where she is, abandoning his partner Kanna. Even with the help of Rinna, one of Ichika's machines, Kaito dies rescuing "the one he loves." Ichika, however, manages to reverse Kaito's death. Kaito awakens and sees himself with Ichika inside a ball of light, and mysteriously returning to the same spot. Everyone catches up to the two and sees Ichika incessantly apologizing in front of Kaito.

09

"Senpai""Senpai"(せんぱい)

March 6, 2012

After the incident involving the rescue drone Ichika reveals her true identity to Kaito and the gang, and reveals her true intentions on Earth, namely "looking for that place in her memory." Kaito, however, isn't surprised because he already knows the fact. However, with the rather rough "rescue attempt" by the Federation rescue drone, she believes that another will come to investigate, and fears that her days on Earth are numbered; thus shunning Kaito for a while—and sealing her feelings for him. This irritated Kanna, telling Ichika that "looking for that place" is just an excuse to avoid him. Kanna confessed that she has feelings for Kaito, and runs away after confronting Ichika—only to be consoled later by Tetsurō, hurting Mio in the process. Kaito, with a bit of encouragement from Remon, did confess to Ichika later—and, when Kaito said it's his first kiss, she revealed that she has kissed Kaito four times already, as she gave him the fifth one.

10

"Senpai's and ours""Senpai to Bokura no."(先輩と僕らの。)

March 12, 2012

As Ichika and Kaito spend some time close together (which Ichika credits to Kanna), a depressed Kanna shuts herself in her room after a visit from Tetsurō, who tells everyone that she has a cold. He meets Mio on the way, where they shared the cake she was to give Kanna. There Mio asks and hears his reason why he invited Ichika to do the film with them. Angry at himself, Tetsurō kicks a nearby wooden railing and injures himself. The next day Tetsurō invites Kanna to their old playground as kindergarten kids and confesses to her, but she rejects him; and as she runs off to Kaito's place to confess (only to be rejected by Kaito anyway), Tetsurō falls on his knees, where Mio sneaks from behind and hugs him, saying it's alright to cry. The filming of the movie continues, but one day Emika, Ichika's older sister, appears.

11

"Don't Leave, Senpai""Ikanaide, Senpai."(行かないで、先輩。)

March 19, 2012

Emika is retrieving Ichika because the latter is on a planet where contact with its lifeforms is forbidden under their Federation laws, and the only solution is for her to leave this planet before things get messier. Ichika reluctantly agrees, but changes her mind when Kanna and the others arrive to stop her. Learning certain information from Emika, Remon tells them that Ichika may stay if the earthly spot Ichika has seen in her imagination is found in order to prove a probable previous contact between aliens and human beings. As the group finds the place, the search team arrives and starts a pursuit. Since Rinon's teleport function becomes disabled, Remon takes the others to the spot using a van specially prepared with Emika's help; with Tetsurō, Mio, and Kanna becoming bio-signature decoys for the pursuing rescue craft. However, a few kilometers from the site, the van collides with a cloaked drone from the rescue craft and overturns.

12

"Waiting in the Summer""Ano Natsu de Matteru."(あの夏で待ってる。)

March 26, 2012

Despite the combined efforts of Tetsurō, Mio, Kanna, Remon (and the van-turned-robot and support from the Men in Black), and even Rinon (with a weapon provided by Emika); and even after seeing the desired location, which Kaito is able to see due to the nanomachines he got from Ichika, the proof they were looking for—a love umbrella carved into a tree by the alien who crash-landed on the place a long time ago—is gone, and the Federation recovery team takes Ichika away. But as a result of such encounter, the memories of the aliens about the distant time when they did arrive at the place were unlocked and become part of the memory for all those involved. As the new school term enters, Kaito's sister Nanami returns from her trip to Bolivia with a gift for Ichika (a traditional incan vest); Kaito tells her that Ichika's term abroad ended and she went back home. Remon, prior to transferring back to the MIB, leaves Kaito and the others an incomplete version of the film they have made. A few years later, Kaito, Mio, Tetsurō, and Kanna have graduated, but not without completing the unfinished film. During a re-showing at the school festival, Ichika (wearing Nanami's gift) is seen appearing in it.

OVA

"Our last Summer of high school, is spent waiting for that Summer."

August 29, 2014

Tetsuro finds a reel of film at Kaito's house. Kaito remembers it was made as a test film, so everyone could get use to being filmed. Kaito watches the reel showing Ichika being too self conscious being filmed. Remon gives her an alcoholic drink to get inspiration for the screenplay, which she gets from Ichika's uninhibited behaviour. While Ichika is sleeping off the effects. Remon pours some of the alcoholic drink for Kanna and Mio, resulting in more wild behaviour which Remon films. The test reel finishes and Kanna, Mio and Tetsuro turn up at Kaito's house with fireworks and sparklers. The friends reminiscence about old times.

An internet radio show to promote Waiting in the Summer called Ichika to Rinon no Natsu Machi Radio(イチカとりのんのなつまちラジオ,Ichika and Rinon's Waiting for Summer Radio?) had a pre-broadcast on December 26, 2011. It ran for 12 weekly broadcasts between January 16 and April 30, 2012. Produced by Hibiki Radio Station, the show was hosted by Haruka Tomatsu (the voice of Ichika Takatsuki) and Rina Hidaka (the voice of Rinon).[10]

A manga adaptation illustrated by Pepako Dokuta was serialized between the March 2012 and February 2013 issues of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Daioh magazine.[11][12] The first tankōbon volume was released on March 27, 2012; two volumes have been released as of August 27, 2012. The third and final volume will be released on February 27, 2013. Media Factory published two light novels, written by Ichika Toyogawa with illustrations by Taraku Uon: the first on March 22, 2012 and the second on July 23, 2012. An art book titled The Art of Natsu de Matteru(The Art of あの夏で待ってる?) was published by Mitsumura Suiko Shoin on July 18, 2012.